The Legislative Reapportionment Commission has released new proposed maps today for public comment. You can see the house map here, and the senate map here.

The 161st house district, currently represented by Rep. Krueger would lose the eastern part of its current district (notably Swarthmore) and would now contain parts of Ridley and Middletown, plus Upland, Chester Township, Aston, Nether Providence and Rose Valley. This would make the district a safer Democratic district. Swarthmore would be shuffled into the 165th, currently held by Rep. O’Mara. The 165th would contain Swarthmore, Morton, Springfield, Upper Providence, Media and part of Marple. It would be a much safer Democratic district. For those that are interested in the 168th just north of us, held by Rep. Quinn, the new district is a line running from the upper part of Middletown through all of Edgemont, Newtown and Radnor making what looks to be a district likely to flip.

On the senate side, Nether Providence and Rose Valley would remain in Sen. Kane’s 9th district, which is largely the same shape as before, sprawling from Nether Providence out into Chester County. It looks to be a safer Democratic district in the new maps. Sen. Kearney’s 26th still contains Media and Swarthmore, and also looks like it retains its Democratic edge.

Overall the effect locally looks like we’ll have less close races in our immediate area. These maps could be altered from the upcoming public comment period, but they did pass the LRC 3-2 today. The congressional maps for the US House are drawn up by a different process, but every likely map I’ve seen keeps Rep. Scanlon’s district largely as it currently is running from west Philly, including all of DelCo and grabbing parts of Chester County.